glow•° || skz || nonbinary Felix ff

glowing•°

JYP STRAY KIDS - THE NEW BTS?
Just younger, more chaotic and a whole lot queerer

The K-pop-group Stray Kids gets more famous with every second. They're currently the third most listened to K-pop-group worldwide - after the legends Blackpink and BTS. Now with BTS being in military service for roughly the next two years, many fans wonder if Stray Kids are to become the next BTS.

Stray Kids' leader, Bang Chan, said on that topic: "We're thankful for our fandom and everything they do for us. But we'll never be a second BTS. BTS is absolutely unique, that is not something you can copy. And we don't want to. We look up to them like role models, but we want to find our own path. With the support of our fandom, we want to become something different, unique of our own."

And they already are. Their honest, outgoing way of interacting with fellow idols as well as fans let them stand out from the beginning. Many fans fell in love to equal parts with their self-produced music and their chaotic characters. Rumour has it that they're sometimes loud enough to be heard in other idols' videos.
Moreover, multiple members are part of the LGBTQ-Community - something quite uncommon in the rather conservatively influenced industry. And they get queerer and queerer:

One of them, Lee Minho, stated a few weeks ago in a live that he "has a boyfriend" and when asked who it was he simply replied with "I guess you already know". Most fans are convinced that it's his fellow Stray Kids member, Han Jisung, though nothing is confirmed to this day.

Another member, Lee Felix, who was the first one to come out as bisexual last year, now recently outed themselves as nonbinary and will be using they/them pronouns from now on. They're the first k-pop-idol at that level of fame to do so. Stray Kids' fandom, so-called 'Stay', seemed to be surprisingly chilled about this huge step.

Generally, the backlash to the previous outings was unexpectedly positive. Whereas k-pop-fans used to be categorized as obsessive and even toxic at some points, Stay proves itself to be extremely loyal and supportive of their group.
Somehow they made it possible that despite the world - and k-pop-industry in particular - still being an extremely queerphobic place, Stray Kids' fame and success is only increasing. We'll see where that leads us.

The Guardian

~

Chan offered me to make a song about myself.

To turn my self discovery, my story into music.

He originally suggested to use it as coming out, but I wanted to do that directly in a video.

Of course, I wanted to produce the song anyways and publish it after my coming out.

I worked together with every single member at the lyrics, at the message.

I wanted to make it a little more accessible for everyone.

Thus the lyrics turned out to be about found family, friendship, self expression and self love.

Minho, Hyunjin and I worked weeks long together with our choreographer at the perfect dance.

I hoped the song was going to be a success, so we could prove our label that it was the right decision to let us come out.

I think it was the best song we ever made.

For one part of the music video I could wear a skirt and bright make up.

For the remaining scenes we decided to go with a more badass style. I got a rich aunt aesthetic: an elegant black suit, tight around my waist - and with a completely, utter open back.

When the others saw this outfit they naturally wanted to wear something similar - despite it being relatively feminine.

In the end, we all wore hella expensive suits which showed way more skin in weird places than planned. But, help God, we looked good in it.

I've never felt more happy.

My hair was finally dyed in a pastel purple colour, with lighter strands here and there.

I wasn't able to stop smiling.

I was the luckiest person on earth, with the best family and biggest support system.

I was able to be myself.

I was able to glow.

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There you got your cheesy ending :)

Thank you for reading and accompanying us on the journey <3

Love you

<3

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